The Uncanny

Doing a little light reading on Freud's theory of the uncanny.

The uncanny generally concerns those things that make us uncomfortable. "It is undoubtedly related to what is frightening -  to what arouses dread and horror;...........................tends to coincide with what excites fear in general."

In exploring this theory, Freud gets into the fear of being buried alive. And says: "to many people the idea of being buried alive while appearing to be dead is the most uncanny thing of all. And yet psycho-analysis has taught us that this terrifying phantasy is only a transformation of another phantasy which originally had nothing terrifying about it at all but was willed with a certain lustful pleasure - the phantasy, I mean, of intra-uterine experience."

The research I read interpreted this comment to mean "the terror of death through premature burial is thus diminished or transformed into pleasure by locating it's source in the fantasy of returning to the womb."

Freud was a nutcase. A lot of his theories have been discredited. The more I learn about him the more I picture him sitting in the dark with pictures of a naked Anais Nin, writing feverishly in his tablet and passing off his observations as insightful analysis into the nature of humanity.

Kind of like if Anthony Weiner started his own school of thought in the world of psycho-analysis.

As Freud grinds his way through his theory of "the uncanny', he references a story written by E.T.A. Hoffman, called "The Sandman." Hoffman was a German writer, composer and painter known for his stories "in which supernatural and sinister characters move in and out of men's lives, ironically revealing tragic or grotesque sides of human nature."

Like in The Sand-Man. In the story a kid is occasionally sent to bed early after being told by his mother that the Sand-Man is coming. The kid's nurse tells him: "the wicked man would throw sand into the eyes of children who refuse to go to bed, steal their bleeding eyes, and feed the eyes to his own bird-children who would use their hooked, owl-like beaks to peck and eat the eyes of the naughty boys and girls."

Pretty gruesome story. There is more but my fingers are getting tired.

Freud says "the arbitrary and meaningless elements of the story become intelligible as soon as we replace the Sand-Man by the dreaded father at whose hands castration is expected.  ...................we shall venture therefore to refer the uncanny effect of the Sand-Man to the anxiety belonging to the castration complex of childhood."

Imagine being screwed up in the head and going to see this dude for treatment?

You would come out stuttering, carrying a pickax and asking everybody you meet - "Did you bring me a hat?"

By the way I don't sit around reading Freud for light entertainment. I was turned on to the concept of "the uncanny" through a biography of Edgar Alan Poe that I am currently reading.

There is a twisted connection there that delights me.